


Aftermath

by oshare_banchou



Category: Sengoku Basara
Genre: Blood, Date Army, Drama, Gen, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1432090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oshare_banchou/pseuds/oshare_banchou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kojuurou must keep fighting, even in the aftermath.</p><p>(potential spoilers for S1E6 and The Last Party)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath

     When Masamune finally returns from his solo skirmish with the trespassing Toyotomi forces, Kojuurou expects his lord to brush his worries aside. He expects an attitude of defiant bravado, bolstered by a recent victory. He expects to feel duty-bound to admonish his lord for his foolhardiness. But when all is said and done, he expects everything to be alright. To be as it should.

     So Kojuurou is entirely unprepared when the cruel reality of the situation strays so far from his expectations.

     Masamune dismounts and takes three steps forward—before he staggers backward, suddenly unsteady on his feet as he lists to a halt. His gaze is unfocused, unseeing, his lips mouthing whispered words that rapidly grow fainter until they are all hitched breath and no sound.

     A feeling of dread washes over Kojuurou like ice water sluicing over bare skin, setting his nerves on edge. Something is terribly, terribly wrong. His mind flies to the worst possible conclusion—and as it turns out, he’s ruefully close to the mark.

     Before Kojuurou’s very eyes, Masamune’s surcoat is rent to shreds, his armor shattered, his helmet toppled to the ground. Each strike looks to have been dealt with deadly precision by a practiced hand—by someone who is a master of his lethal art.

     _Iaijutsu_ , Kojuurou’s mind informs him. _Ishida Mitsunari_ , he logically infers _._ From what Kojuurou has heard, Ishida Mitsunari does not strike to wound, nor to maim. He strikes to _kill_ , like a cornered viper hell-bent on personally escorting his victim to the afterlife.

     A bright spatter of blood confirms Kojuurou’s fears.

     “Masamune-sama?!”

     Masamune’s left eye widens in blind shock as a gash splits open on his neck. Then there is blood, blood _everywhere_ , splattering Kojuurou’s face and soaking into their clothes and staining the ground beneath their feet. Kojuurou curses his helplessness against this invisible assailant, against wounds that would never have been inflicted had he, Kojuurou, been by Masamune’s side to fulfill the oath he swore as the Right Eye of the Dragon.  

     Masamune staggers forward, all the strength sapped from his limbs, and he collapses into Kojuurou’s arms, limp as a ragdoll—unconscious and so, so _light_.

     The cries of the men rise around them, but Kojuurou is deaf to all but the sound of Masamune’s shallow breathing and his own heartbeat hammering in his ears.

     Kojuurou recalls the aftermath of Nagashino. He remembers a torrent of panicked shouting. He remembers fumbling in the dark, frantically struggling to apply pressure to Masamune’s gunshot wound. He remembers Sanada Yukimura fashioning a makeshift tourniquet, stubbornly fighting to stem the flow of blood. He remembers praying that they would be able to relocate Masamune to safety and tend to his wounds before it was too late. He remembers willing it to be so.

     And so it was.

     _And this time will be no different_.


End file.
